1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an integrated energy management system for refrigeration systems and more particularly to a method and system for automatically controlling certain functions of a refrigeration system to minimize the energy costs and to provide the user with continuous data on parameters of the system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Over the recent decades, the use of refrigeration systems and air conditioning systems has grown to the point that such systems represent a major consumer of electrical energy in the United States as well as in many of the major industrial nations of the world. The designs for such systems developed during a period when electrical energy was extremely cheap. Efficiency often was relegated to a secondary factor in such designs with the initial cost being a primary factor. However, in recent years with the shortages of fossil fuels for producing electrical energy and the continuing increase in demand for electrical energy has led to significant improvements in the design to minimize input power, both in the interest of conservation of energy and the reduction of operating costs.
As is well known, the price of electricity has continued to spiral upward to the point that operating costs may dominate over capital investment costs. This situation is particularly severe with respect to large industrial refrigeration systems, such as those having capacities from 100 tons to 1,000 tons and greater. To illustrate, a 1,000 ton refrigeration system, designed to the state of the art, may have an annual operating cost of over $400,000.00 for power at 0.5.cent. per kilowatt hour. This number assumes that the system is operating at its design parameters and that all of the components are operating at their maximum efficiencies.